Been there. Done that. Know how you'll feel and what you'll be facing, both as an NFL quarterback and as the most visible professional athlete in this city.

During the recent courtship of Peyton Manning, how many NFL executives could have said that to him?

One.

"I've always had a great deal of respect for John Elway," Manning said Tuesday at the Broncos' Dove Valley headquarters. "He's one of the best quarterbacks ever, and his knowledge and respect for the game is evident in everything that he does. Talking football with John, Coach (John) Fox and his staff helped me realize that this is a great place to be."

Peyton Manning knew that, like his father, Archie Manning, and like his younger brother, Eli Manning, Elway also has an elite quarterback's perspective, with a different spin. Now, he not only will be working for Elway, he will be trying to fill his shoes.

Yes, this is a veteran, second-generation NFL quarterback who has been through the pressure-filled rigors of the league since 1998, but having a kindred spirit on the second floor of the Broncos' headquarters can't hurt.

"I've always had a relationship with John, and it goes back a long way," Manning said. "I'm seeing John now in a different role. I've always seen him as a quarterback, never having played against him, but that's always the role I saw him as. Now I'm seeing him as the leader of a franchise, and I really liked what he had to say."

Manning turns 36 this week. His physical issues were at the heart of why he was released by the Colts, and any quarterback who hits the field at age 36 in the NFL already has beaten the odds.

Elway was 38 when he announced his retirement in the spring of 1999, a few months after the Broncos' second consecutive Super Bowl victory. He retired not necessarily because he wanted to retire on top, but because he was banged up and uncertain he could get physically and emotionally ready to play one more season and seek a "three-peat."

"John knows what it's like to play quarterback at the ages of 35 and 36," Manning said. "Certainly, that helped."

Said Elway: "The fun thing is to talk about football ... how you see, how another quarterback sees things. During my career and even to now, talking football is what quarterbacks enjoy doing. So I'm sure we'll have many, many conversations when it comes to football.

"I just know he's going to play great football. That's when I played my best football, the older I got. At 37 and 38 were the best two years that we had in my career."

Later, Elway added: "His dad played for a long, long time; his brother's in the game, so to be able to talk football is really what it's all about. What I want to do is get the best players around him to give him the best chance to be successful."

Manning's first offseason of preparation in Denver — minicamps and organized team activities — will come under a microscope. Of course, it's arguable that Manning is used to that, but is he? He no longer will be in Indianapolis. He is succeeding not just Elway, but the Disney-esque Tim Tebow, the quarterback Elway cheered while on camera, but never truly embraced. Manning is going to be subjected to a new level of attention.

That's where Elway could come in and say something like: Maybe it wasn't so bad because it came before Twitter and the Internet and smartphones, but let me tell you about this thing called The Elway Watch ...

It's all about the natural kinship among those who have played the highest-visibility position in pro sports. But here's the side issue: Think of how few superstars have become coaches, been good at it, and stayed with it. John Elway didn't follow his father into coaching, and it's virtually impossible to imagine him in that role. That's all because superstars so often see themselves as the prototypes, and they are frustrated and agonized when their charges show neither the talent nor the perfectionism they had as players.

So now John Elway, the NFL executive, has a quarterback that at least in some ways reminds him of himself.

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